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A lot has been said about the liberating role technology has played in the Middle East uprising, yet there is more to be said about the mutual role the uprising is yet to play in liberating technology in the region.

This Wednesday, the official Facebook of the Egyptian prime minister published a summary of one of his recent meetings. In it, the government agreed to spending $43.8 million to acquire licenses and software products from Microsoft. Many Egyptian citizens started to express their anger after reading the news.

>@rrcoalition: The government pays $44 million in software from Microsoft, while they claim the state is about to become bankrupt.

@Aya_Ayman: Yes, because the government fed and sheltered all the poor and homeless in Egypt and have a few extra millions left!

Nevertheless, the people were not angry because of the huge amount of money being spent, but were mainly angry because they see better alternatives that may cost less and also help develop the local software development community.

@Gue3bara: Instead of spending this money, the government could have spent just one million on local software developers to develop alternative solutions for the government using open source software.

Omar Ak explained the meaning of Open Source Software briefly:

‏@i3mmoor: Pt – the open source besides being free, it can be modified and does not demand renewal. #OpenEgypt.

Nagla Rizk, who is founding director of the Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D) and member of the steering committee of the Open Africa Innovation Research Project (Open A.I.R), added on Twitter:

@naglarzk: This contract with Microsoft, not only increases its presence in the Egyptian market, but also reduces the chances for small local companies to compete in the market, especially those relying on Open Source Software.

all the personal computers in our house are Linux based…no more buying software… its not necessary open source

Ver Hat

Opensource and GNU/Linux in general has the future, not only because the huge amount of applications, usuability and opportunities, it’s mainly free software and it’s much more secure and transparent. Look arround and you’ll see that opensource and GNU/Linux based operating systems are used in (large) businesses, offices and at home (globally) and still growing.

I recommend Debian or a Debian based distribution like AtlasX. Using AtlasX myself with great success.